The Noble Son of Black
by MarauderBlood
Summary: Astin Black never knew of his father until he attended Hogwarts. He never knew that his father was a convicted murderer, and when he finds out, his life is flipped upside down. Follow his story of self-discovery, along with dealing with friendship, romance, and struggling with the Dark forces that seem to be everywhere.
1. Astin

Despite the stormy weather, an owl flew through the sky. It struggled against the wind and the rain, and seemed determined to get to its destination. Lightning flashed through the sky, which only showed the piece of parchment rolled up on the owl's leg. Although it was raining, the parchment was still stiff and not wet and soggy. After a while, it began to descend as it circled a particular house. That house was in the middle of the country, with no other homes in sight. A child sat in the window, watching the weather. His dark hair framed his young face.

"Mum! There's an owl!" he shouted excitedly.

A brunette woman came in from the kitchen as she adjusted the straps of her apron. She joined her son by the window and looked out of it. She, too, saw the owl that was coming straight down to their home.

"I think it's caught in the storm," she said worriedly. The woman went over to the front door, and still in her apron, she began to put on her shoes.

However, she didn't have enough time to get outside before her son decided to take the initiative to beat her out the door without so much as a jacket. Within seconds, the boy's black hair was flattened against his head. Instead of the owl struggling down, it landed rather elegantly onto his shoulder. The boy's mother shrieked: she thought that perhaps her child was being attacked. The boy was not frightened: instead, he calmly laughed and then noticed the parchment tied to the bird's leg. He untied it, and the bird did not get scared. It merely stuck out its leg willingly. The moment the boy had it, the boy jumped off his shoulder and flew into the house through the still-open door, much to the woman's displeasure.

"Mum," the boy said as he approached her. His eyes were cast down on the envelope in his hand. "What's Hogwarts?"

The woman was surprised by the term. She had no idea what it meant, but the word for some reason, sounded familiar.

"Astin, go to your room," she instructed as she took the letter from him.

"No, I want to know what it says. It's addressed to me!" Astin exclaimed with a frustrated tone.

The woman bit her lip. "Yes… yes, I suppose you're right."

She put the envelope that was suspiciously dry onto a table near the front door. She went and fetched her son a towel, and although he seemed suspicious, he stayed where he was. She threw him the towel and he dried himself enough to the point where she thought it was okay to bring him into the kitchen. She opened the letter and read it out to her son, despite her bad feeling about doing so.

"I'm a wizard?" Astin asked in surprise.

The woman looked over her shoulder at the owl that decided to perch on top of her fridge.

"I'm not sure," she admitted with a small bite of her lip. She didn't understand it, nor did she want to take a random letter as affirmation. As she had her doubts, a cracking noise came from outside. She rushed back to the door to see a man standing just on the outside. He was tall, thin, with a long silver beard and hair. He wore half-moon glasses that framed bright eyes, and he was dressed peculiarly in robes.

"May I come in?" he asked. His voice was a little hoarse, but kind.

"Who are you?" she inquired.

"I'm Professor Albus Dumbledore," he said with a warm smile. "Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."

"From the letter?" she asked, perplexed.

"Yes," he replied.

They stood there in silence for several moments. The woman's expression showed that she was thinking deeply. When she looked back up at him, she nodded and moved out of the way to allow him in.

"Now, Emilia, where is young Astin?"

She pointed wordlessly towards her kitchen. He strode past her comfortably as if he had been in her home before. She was confused on how he had known her name. She had never met anyone like him before in her life. Emilia followed the man into the kitchen, where he was crouched down in front of her son. They had already begun to talk.

"Is this… is this letter true?" Emilia asked. She folded her arms across her chest. The more she thought about it, the more uncomfortable it made her feel.

Dumbledore took out a stick.

"Is that supposed to be some sort of… _wand_?" she demanded.

"Yes," he answered softly. He pointed his wand at a nearby candle, and it lit up. He then pointed at her sink full of dishes, and they began to do themselves.

"Woah! Cool!" Astin exclaimed, his grey eyes wide and excited.

"Astin explained to me that he can sometimes make things happen that he can't explain," Dumbledore said. He paused as he watched the dishes clean. "How much do you remember of your father, Astin?"

When he glanced up, however, Emilia shook her head violently.

"I don't have a father," Astin said as if he had accepted it a long time ago.

"Astin, do you mind if the nice man and I talk alone?" Emilia asked.

"Do I have to?" Astin whined.

"Yes, please."

Astin groaned and headed out of the room. After a few seconds, Emilia called out, "And away from the door!"

Moments later, both Emilia and Dumbledore heard footsteps on the staircase. When Emilia was certain that her son was in his room, she turned back to the older man.

"His father died," she said, rather bluntly.

"Are you sure?" Dumbledore replied. His looked at her over his half-moon glasses in a way that made her feel like he was looking right through her.

Emilia shrugged. "No. No, but I don't care where he is now." She paused. "His father is in jail. For murder."

"You don't say," Dumbledore said.

There was another silence. Emilia had so many questions, but she didn't know which ones to ask first.

"How is he a wizard? I'm not a witch or wizard or whatever the phrase is for a female."

"It _can_ go through blood, but not always. Sometimes they can be through Muggle, or non-magical, families."

"Oh." Emilia replied. "So it's a pure coincidence."

"It can be."

There was a way that he said that sentence that made Emilia suspicious.

"Why did you say it like that?"

"How well did you know Astin's father?" Dumbledore wondered.

"Very well. We weren't married, although at the time I would have liked to, you know, marry him. Sirius was… he was funny. But I couldn't accept that no one could tie him down, not even me. I guess it's for the best. I guess I didn't know as much about him as I thought – I would have never guessed he would have it in him to kill someone."

"So you can accept that there may be things about him that you didn't know?"

Emilia nodded. "Did you know him?"

"He was a pupil of mine."

It took a few moments, but it suddenly hit her. "Sirius was a wizard?"

"And as far as I was aware, quite a skilled one. Sherbert lemon?" he offered her a candy, which she declined. She hardly thought this revelation was in need of one.

"I had no idea. And all of his friends…. Would they not have told me? James? Lily? Remus? Peter?" Emilia felt sick to her stomach, particularly due to the look on Dumbledore's face after. "They were all wizards, weren't they? Why didn't they tell me?"

"One can only speculate," Dumbledore commented. "I'm assuming they thought it was for the best. We do, after all, have to keep up a veil of secrecy."

"We had a child together," Emilia said. She wanted to sit down, and Dumbledore was aware so he waved a wand and one of her kitchen table chairs flew to behind her. She took the seat. "He still didn't trust me?"

"I can't speak for Sirius," Dumbledore said. "Will you allow Astin to attend Hogwarts?"

"Yes, of course, I just… I don't know how to go about getting the things on this list."

"Don't worry. I'll help you through it all. You've made a wonderful decision."

Emilia smiled weakly. "I certainly hope so."


	2. Hogwarts Express

Astin was beyond excited to finally go to Hogwarts. As a young boy, it didn't take him much to accept what he truly was. The Hogwarts Express was the icing on the cake for him. Although a regular train, it seemed large and extravagant to him. There were people milling about everywhere, and he could tell by the look on his mother's face that she was overwhelmed.

"It's okay, Mum. It's not scary," Astin tried to assure her.

For Emilia, however, it wasn't so simple. She hadn't been expecting even less than a month ago that her little boy would be heading off to boarding school, never mind _magical_ boarding school. It was harder for her to accept than her child, who didn't seem hesitant to go off somewhere he had never been before with people he had never even set eyes on. She could tell he was excited, and all she could help think was that he was like his father. Reckless, sure, but adventurous. Had Sirius been like this as a child? A chill ran through her. She hoped not. The last thing she needed was an ex _and_ a son who were murderers.

Emilia then took the moment to lean down and hug Astin, who squirmed against her loving arms.

"Mum, come on, you're embarrassing me," he said, despite the fact that he hugged her back.

"They don't even know you, they won't remember this and no one's paying attention," she mumbled into his ear as she held him tighter still. If she was prone to crying, she would have no doubt felt tears sting her eyes. She had the ability to hold them back, however. "Be a good boy, won't you?"

"You know me," Astin replied non-committedly.

"That's exactly why I'm telling you," Emilia said as she pulled away, but remained in her crouched down position.

Astin wasn't a bad kid by any means, but he did have a knack for getting up to things that he shouldn't. Emilia knew that he wouldn't break the rules just to be a troublemaker for no reason, but she didn't want him to risk it. She wanted him to excel.

The train's horn blared, which started Emilia who was deep in thought.

"Go, go on," she told him.

Astin didn't need telling twice. He ran onto the train and waved to his mother through the door's window as it began to pull away from the station. He swore he saw her wipe her eye as the train turned out of sight, but Astin couldn't be sure. He wasn't nervous as he made his way past all of the full compartments. He didn't realize that there would be this many students. In all honesty, he thought that Hogwarts might have been a small establishment, not a school with hundreds of students.

He was beginning to feel like he was about to find nowhere to sit when a bushy haired brunette girl appeared immediately in front of him.

"You look lost," she said bluntly.

"I can't find anywhere to sit," Astin explained shortly. He really couldn't get over how bushy her hair is.

"Oh, I know somewhere you can sit," she said. She grabbed him by the arm, and he had no choice but to follow behind her.

Within moments, the bushy haired girl stopped and the two of them were outside a compartment.

"I'm Hermione Granger, by the way," she said, almost as if he should be honoured that she was speaking to him.

"Astin," he replied, simply.

"There's only two boys in this compartment," she explained. "I'm sure they'll take you in."

With that, Hermione Granger departed. Astin wasn't sure if he should feel grateful or something else, but regardless he knocked on the compartment door she had led him to before entering. Inside was a black haired boy whose hair was parted to reveal a lightning-bolt shaped scar, and across from him was a tall, thin ginger boy.

"Is it alright if I sit here?" Astin wondered. "There aren't really any other seats."

"Yeah, go ahead," the black haired boy offered. "I'm Harry Potter. This is Ron Weasley."

The black haired boy looked expectant.

"I'm Astin Black," he replied. "Are both of you first years, as well?"

They nodded.

"You must be a Muggle-born," Ron said. His voice had a tone to it that made Astin feel as if he were missing out on some sort of joke.

"Yeah, why?"

"You didn't seem surprised to learn Harry's name," Ron explained.

"Should I know you?" Astin asked, quickly. He had always been rubbish with names. Maybe he had met the boy before?

"Some people have heard of me, I suppose," Harry mumbled.

Ron snorted. "The whole wizarding world has heard of him. He's the only one who ever survived the Killing Curse and brought the Darkest wizard of our age down at the same time… and he was only a year old!"

The enthusiasm in Ron's voice made Astin feel like he was missing out. After what was no doubt a too-quick explanation of what a Killing Curse and who the Dark Lord was, Astin still felt like he didn't completely get it, but he understood more than before.

"Where were your parents?" Astin couldn't help but wonder. "You said you were only a year old. Surely they must have been around?"

"My dad was, yeah," Harry answered, sadly. He fiddled with a strap on the seat as if he didn't want to talk about it. "He tried to protect me, he stood in the way of Voldemort…" Astin noticed Ron flinch, but Harry continued if nothing happened. "… and so Voldemort killed him. My mum was out with her friend at the time."

"Well, it's good that you still have her," Astin replied. "Is that where you got that scar?"

Harry nodded. The conversation was a bit dark for Astin's liking, so he tried to quickly change the subject off of Harry's murdered father and onto asking questions about the wizarding world. Harry and Ron talked on and on about it, and Astin didn't have to interject much. When the trolley came around, Harry and Astin bought plenty, which they willingly shared with Ron.

By the train got to Hogwarts, people were milling about and Astin couldn't help but feel like Ron and Harry were nervous. He didn't understand it. What was there to be nervous about? However, as they got onto the little boats and headed to the school, he heard a lot of chit chat regarding being Sorted.

"What's that?" he wondered.

He finally got explained how the different Houses earned points and at the end of the year, the House with the most points won the House Cup and the different personality traits normally associated with each one.

"Why does everyone care so much?" Astin wondered. "It doesn't really matter."

Ron scoffed. "Says you, mate. My entire family was in Gryffindor – and I have five older brothers. Even my parents were Gryffindors."

"Same with my parents," Harry added.

"Oh," Astin said. He still couldn't see why it mattered.

"You have it lucky, being a Muggle-born," Ron insisted. "It really doesn't matter for you. Besides, I don't remember the last Muggle-born who ever got into Slytherin, so you're lucky there as well."

"Lucky for me then, too!" the girl who introduced herself as Hermione said as they walked in a group into the Great Hall. It was massive, and there were hundreds of pairs of eyes upon them. "I've read all about the Houses, naturally. I really hope I'm in either Gryffindor or Ravenclaw. They really do seem like the best… and the most like me."

"Well, Hermione, I hope you're in Ravenclaw as well," Ron said with a mock cheery voice. She seemed to take it as a compliment and clearly didn't see how he was implying that he just wanted her to be in a different House from him.

The witch that had identified herself as Professor McGonagall started the Sorting ceremony. One by one the students went up and were Sorted into their various Houses. Astin was near the top of the list considering it was in alphabetical order. Sure enough, after only a few names were called –

"Black, Astin!" McGonagall called out.

Unlike many of the students who seemed like they were going to lose it going up to the stool, Astin found that he wasn't worried at all. He didn't have family pressures or any friend pressures. He wasn't about to feel anxiety about what two boys thought that he met on the train. He was sure he could make friends in any House. He just didn't think that a Sorting Hat could define him precisely, unless the Hat was trying to imply that all people could be Sorted into four different personality types.

Astin walked up to the stool and McGonagall gave him a strange look – almost the type of look given to those whom you thought you recognized. He grinned at her lightly and took a seat. He looked out at the crowd. He couldn't believe how many students there were. She raised the Hat over his head, and she slowly put it on his head …


End file.
